Moorfields Eye Hospital has opened a diagnostic hub in Hoxton, London in order to allow more patients to be seen in a socially distanced environment.
Opened in a space previously used by commercial offices, the hub takes patients through a series of tests that are completed within 45 minutes.
Results are reviewed online by consultants and patients would then receive follow up details either by post, phone or video call, or at an arranged hospital appointment.
Moorfields said the hub made the patient journey more efficient by reducing the amount of time patients spend in a clinic and the number of overall face to face attendances.
It also freed up more time for consultants to spend with patients who required more in-depth and specialist care in person.
Dilani Siriwardena, divisional director and deputy medical director at Moorfields, said: ‘Expanding our use of diagnostic hubs has allowed us to provide diagnostic care to many patients and has given us a safer way to keep clinics open during this lockdown.
‘We hope that the diagnostic hubs format can be applied in other settings to meet the needs of patients in the safest, most efficient way possible.’
Moorfields used the format before the pandemic but has decided to roll it out across more specialities, including its most in-demand services - glaucoma and medical retina.